Cocoa eased on concerns about demand and technical weakness.
The global sugar market has been supported by a shift into deficit after years of surpluses, but gains were kept in check on Thursday as the cane crush in centre-south Brazil benefited from favourable weather.
“The sugar bulls need a fresh ‘story’ at the moment as we have drifted lower, with sugar bears pointing to a huge net spec long position,” said Tom Kujawa, co-head of the softs department at Sucden Financial Sugar.
October raw sugar on ICE was up 0.17 cents, or 0.9 percent, at 19.45 cents per lb by 1216 GMT, holding just above Monday’s three-week low of 19.13 cents.
October white sugar was up $1.20, or 0.2 percent, at $535.10 a tonne.
Coffee futures firmed on concern about forecasts for cool weather in a part of top producer Brazil’s growing region later this week.
September arabica was up 0.7 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $1.4770 per lb, underpinned by concerns over the quality of new-crop Brazilian beans.
September robusta was up $6, or 0.3 percent, at $1,822 a tonne, buoyed by a very poor harvest in Brazil and a slow start to harvesting in Indonesia.
A softer British pound against the U.S. dollar limited losses of sterling-based London cocoa.
September London cocoa was down 24 pounds, or 1 percent, at 2,393 pounds a tonne after touching its lowest since July 1 at 2,389 pounds.
September New York cocoa was down $20, or 0.7 percent, at $2,949 a tonne after falling as low as $2,947, the lowest since May 27.
